On Friday, Apple filed suit against OpenAI in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing the ChatGPT maker of stealing confidential information to build its first consumer hardware device. In a statement, an Apple spokesperson said significant evidence had emerged that individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took the company’s secret information about unreleased technologies, processes, and products. The complaint names OpenAI, hardware startup io Products, and two former Apple employees now working at the AI firm.

The two named defendants are Tang Tan, now OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, and Chang Liu, a former electrical engineer. Tan spent 24 years at Apple, most recently as vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, before leaving in early 2024 to work with designer Jony Ive. Liu worked at Apple for eight years as a senior systems electrical engineer and left for OpenAI in January 2026. Apple says the theft was not the work of a few rogue employees but a coordinated pattern of misconduct reaching senior leadership.

Apple’s filing lays out specific allegations against both men. It claims Liu kept a work-issued laptop after leaving, then exploited a software bug to reach Apple’s cloud file storage. According to the complaint, Liu downloaded a compilation of technical files running more than a thousand pages, including detailed manufacturing documents for the circuit boards used in Apple hardware. Apple also alleges Liu coached a colleague he was recruiting on which confidential materials to study before her own OpenAI interview.

The accusations against Tan center on hiring. Apple says he used internal project code names to draw information out of job candidates still employed at Apple, and directed them to bring actual parts to interviews for what the filing calls “show and tell” sessions. The complaint says Tan retained an internal Apple managers’ document marked “Need to Know” that describes departure security procedures, then shared it with new hires so they could evade Apple’s exit checks. Apple claims Tan advised recruits not to tell Apple they had accepted OpenAI jobs, so they could stay in place and keep gathering information.

Apple goes further, alleging the misconduct extended to suppliers. The filing says OpenAI approached Apple’s trusted manufacturing partners using confidential Apple information, and had one partner carry out a proprietary metal-finishing technique after misleading it into believing Apple had granted permission. Apple describes the conduct in the complaint as the tip of the iceberg, arguing that OpenAI’s young hardware business rests on shaky ground because of its reliance on stolen material.

The lawsuit marks a sharp break between two companies that were partners just two years ago. In 2024, Apple and OpenAI announced a deal to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone, with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman appearing at Apple’s headquarters for the reveal. Altman is referenced in the filing but is not a defendant, and Apple does not accuse him or Ive of wrongdoing. Notably, Apple states that the ChatGPT integration agreement is not at issue in the case, though the rupture raises obvious questions about whether that commercial relationship can survive.

Relations cooled after OpenAI moved into hardware. Last year the company acquired io Products, the venture co-founded by Ive, Tan, and other former Apple leaders, in a deal valued at roughly $6.5 billion. OpenAI has never said publicly what device it is building, describing it only as a new way to interact with AI beyond traditional products and screens. Reports have pointed to a smart speaker and a screen-free assistant aware of a user’s surroundings. Apple’s filing notes that more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, a figure that underscores how aggressively the AI firm has recruited from Cupertino.

For both companies, the stakes are commercial as much as legal. Apple is preparing a revamped Siri for release later this year, built on Google’s Gemini models rather than OpenAI technology, and is fighting to stay central as customers shift toward AI assistants. OpenAI, meanwhile, faces the suit while exploring a public offering and fending off competition from Anthropic and Google. The complaint arrives two months after OpenAI won a jury trial brought by Elon Musk, and adds to a growing legal load for a company under pressure to ship its first physical product.

Apple is asking the court to bar OpenAI from using or disclosing its trade secrets, to order the return of confidential materials, and to award damages to be set at trial. It is also suing Tan and Liu for breach of their employment agreements. OpenAI had not responded publicly as of Friday.

JBizNews Desk | New York © JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.